On the morning of November 21, 2013, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, President of the European Commission, led an EU delegation to come to visit CUPL Xueyuan Lu Campus and met with Prof. Huang Jin, CUPL President, Mr. Zhang Fusen, the Former Minister of the Ministry of Justice and the current Chinese Co-Chair of Joint Managerial Committee (JMC) of China-EU School of Law (CESL), Prof. Zhu Yong, CUPL Vice President. President Barroso also had a discussion with CUPL teachers and students.
During the meeting, President Huang Jin took the initiative to extend a warm welcome for President Barroso’s second visit to CUPL five years later. He mentioned that on October 23, 2008, President Barroso attended the unveiling ceremony of CESL in person and delivered a speech on the spot. After five years development, CESL has gradually grown in strength. It has consistently devoted itself to its founding missions: cultivating candidates under a double master degree program; providing professional training to judges, public prosecutors, lawyers, civil servants and other personnel in specific fields; and conducting and promoting legal studies. CESL has already become an excellent and stable exchange platform not only for China-EU legal exchange, but also for exchanges in the field of legal education. Those significant initial results wouldn’t have been achieved by CESL without the efforts coming from three areas: First, smooth cooperation between the University of Hamburg (Universitat Hamburg) and CUPL; Second, the active participation of all 16 partner universities throughout the process; Third, the support from the Chinese government and the EU. He appeared to be fully confident that CESL would develop sustainably under the common attention and joint effort of China and EU, despite various difficulties encountered in the course of getting the school program up and running.
President Barroso was delightfully surprised by the achievements CESL has made to date. He fully acknowledged CESL's successes over the last five years, especially the important position CESL is currently holding in the China-EU legal circle and in the field of legal education. He noted that CESL was now in a critical period of growth. Five years ago it was a “newborn” and now it is in the stage of “childhood”. He hoped that under the joint support of China and EU it will eventually be cultivated to be “a man of tremendous promise”.
In his speech, Mr. Zhang Fusen expressed his hope and belief that both China and EU would, as always, support the development and construction of CESL. He also expressed his wish that CESL continue to improve with each passing day.
At the end of the meeting, President Huang gave a commemorative album containing the signatures of CESL student representatives as a souvenir to President Barroso. Soon afterwards, President Barroso held an open discussion with CUPL student representatives from CESL, the Institute for Human Rights, Law School, Civil, Commercial and Economic Law School, School of International Law, and School of International Education. He spoke with CUPL teachers and students and shared his own experiences of seeking knowledge. He also patiently and meticulously answered student questions on certain matters such as the EU-China Bilateral Investment Treaty, EU politics, the China-EU summit now in session, etc.
At the end of the discussion President Barroso wrote on the guest book: “I am very happy to visit, 5 years after, this China European School of Law, that – from a great project – became a great reality! I congratulate all those that made this dream become possible – and I wish you a bright future.”
